This invention relates generally to carrying devices and specifically to a carrying device enabling a single individual to carry objects that would otherwise be too awkward or too large to be carried by a single person.
Currently, carriers for objects which are too large or awkward to be carried under a person's arm typically support the object either under the middle of the object, at the ends of the object, or in a net. If a carrier supports an object only under its middle, the object is susceptible to rocking forward or backward and falling out of the carrier. Such carriers have been adapted to minimize this danger by lining the carrier with a high friction material, such as rubber, to prevent the object sliding out of the carrier when it rocks, or by tightening the carrier around the object to clasp it more securely when it rocks. A tightened strap is also often used when carrying more than one object in the carrier, to clamp the objects to each other while restraining them in the carrier.
If a large object is carried only from its ends, the object must be stiff enough to support its own weight over its entire length. The object must also be stiff enough to resist crumpling under the compressive force created when the carrier is supported at a point near the middle of the object, thereby pulling inward on the ends of the object as well as upward. Indeed, such carriers often depend on this compressive force to keep the object securely within the carrier.
If a large object is carried in a net, it must be placed carefully in the net to ensure that the net is smoothly spread under the object, thereby supporting the object across its entire bottom and avoiding the compressive forces on the object described above for an object supported only at its ends. Additionally, a net used to carry a thin large object must be gathered at the sides to one tension, to support the object being carried, and gathered at the ends with less tension to restrain the object from forward and backward rocking without imparting compressive forces as described above for an object supported only at its ends.
Thus, current carriers for large objects, in order to prevent the objects from falling out of the carrier, often presume some internal stiffness and robustness in the object being carried, to permit it to survive being clamped around the middle or compressively supported from the ends.